Annual Awards

Melissa Bailey Castillo, Chief Operating Officer of Med North Health Center in Wilmington, North Carolina is the recipient of the Health Center Advocate Award, which recognizes an individual who consistently and passionately engages health center staff, health center board members, community groups and others in grassroots advocacy and education to promote and protect the Health Center Program in North Carolina.

This year’s recipient, Melissa Bailey Castillo has been the director of outreach for Kinston Community Health Center for the last three years. There, she focuses on overcoming barriers to care for vulnerable patients as part of the clinical health care team. NCCHCA was particularly impressed by Melissa’s work during Hurricane Florence, which brought together her knowledge and skills around both farmworker health and emergency response. Melissa ran supplies to workers who did not have access to transportation and coordinated rescues of those in precarious floodwaters after the storm.  Before her time at Kinston, Melissa held a position as case manager with The Free Clinics in Hendersonville that targeted the social determinants of health for its patient, has served as the executive director of NC FIELD as regional coordinator for the Children in the Fields Campaign for the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs (AFOP), and also worked contractually for Human Rights Watch to organize for investigators to interview and document the presence of child tobacco workers in eastern North Carolina.

NCCHCA’s Association Service Award recipient, Americares, has made major contributions to NCCHCA’s training offerings in 2019.  In the long-term recovery from Hurricane Florence and other major events, Americares offered a community health center-specific resiliency bootcamp training, a two-day intensive emergency preparedness class offered free of charge to any CHCs who wished to attend. In the same year, through a partnership with NACHC, Americares offered NCCHCA members a Mental Health First Aid training, hosted at Blue Ridge Health. These resources are invaluable to NCCHCA and our members, as community health center patients are the most vulnerable to the long-term effects of such major weather events, and it is crucial that our facilities get back up and running as soon as possible during and after these events.

In the twenty-three years she has been with Gaston Family Health Services, the organization has grown from a single clinical site in one county to sixteen medical sites serving 60,000 patients in six counties.  Dr. Ocloo went from being one of two providers to overseeing 57 providers.  Through her practice, Dr. Ocloo has recognized the need to address upstream barriers to good health in order to create an environment where everyone has equal opportunity to be healthy.  She has been an enthusiastic supporter of Community Centered Health (CCH) efforts in the Highland Community of Gastonia.  Through CCH, residents of this predominately low-income, African American neighborhood have received training and support to advocate for changes to reduce barriers to good health in their neighborhood and community.  CCH successes include formation of a 501c3 neighborhood association, infrastructure investment of over $1 million by the City of Gastonia, engagement with City staff and elected officials, the hiring of a community health worker to help neighbors achieve their health goals, and the donation of land for a youth-led community garden.  Dr. Ocloo also gives back to her native country through her leadership of the Carolina Chapter of Ghanaian Physicians and Surgeons Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides resources and services for Ghanaians in both the US and Ghana.

Named to honor a pioneer in social and community medicine, the Evelyn D. Schmidt Outstanding Service Award is a tribute to Dr. Evy Schmidt of Lincoln CHC. NCCHCA honors someone that has improved access to care through innovative, comprehensive approaches as evidenced by outreach efforts, preventive health and educational programs, quality and efficiency of care, and/or strong community support and involvement.

This year’s awardee is Allyn Benard Dambeck, MD, Goshen Medical. Dr. Dambeck has been practicing for 65 years, after graduating from the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at The University of Vermont in 1954. He served 3 years in the US Navy, was Chief of Staff and the Head of the Department of Family Medicine at Rockville Hospital in CT. He then moved to Sampson Regional Medical Center serving as Chief of Emergency Services in 1978-1993.  He was one of the first to work as an ER physician in the area while providing primary care in an out-patient office.  He would take turns covering the ER for the hospital, providing care for the under/un-insured patients of the area. Dr. Dambeck began working with the Goshen Medical Center in 1993, served as the Chief Medical Officer and Lab Director for Goshen Medical Center for the past 25 years. Over the past 25 years, he has served as the supervising/collaborating MD for well over 100 PA/NP within the Goshen system. “Dr. Dambeck could have chosen to give his life of service anywhere, and he faithfully and diligently devoted himself to our service area.  We have indeed been blessed to have a man of his caliber to commit himself to our mission,” said Dr. Maynor of Goshen.

Representative Dobson represents Avery, McDowell and Mitchell counties. These counties are home to five health center sites (2 from Mountain Community Health Partnership and 3 from High Country Community Health) and more than 7,000 health center patients.

This year, Representative Dobson introduced three pieces of legislation during the long legislative session that are positive for Community Health Centers and the patients they serve.

• House Bill 655: NC Health Care for Working Families would close the coverage gap and provide health insurance coverage for many of North Carolina’s uninsured working parents. In addition to leading this legislation, Representative Dobson spoke in support of closing the coverage gap at an early legislative breakfast for NC General Assembly members.
• House Bill 721: Increase Access to Telehealth services would expand the types of telehealth modalities that would be reimbursable by Medicaid, commercial, and the State Employees Health Plan
• House Bill 884: FQHC Medicaid Reimbursement/Telemedicine/Clinical Pharmacist Practitioners would treat FQHCs the same as other providers offering similar services, such that FQHCs could bill Medicaid as distant site providers for telemedicine services and could receive Medicaid reimbursement for clinical pharmacist practitioners.

NCCHCA commends Representative Dobson for taking a leadership role in health policy for North Carolina and encouraging his colleagues to support legislation that would improve the health of marginalized and underserved communities.